With the PlayStation 5 reveal coming to players soon, it's clear Sony is setting itself up to have one of the biggest years' in the company's storied history, especially with several of the rumors pegging the console to be one of the most advanced pieces of gaming technology yet. With a state of the art SSD, 4K visuals, and much, much more, the PlayStation 5 will seemingly be a big moment for players everywhere as they well and truly embrace the next generation of gaming.
However, it seems not everything is going to be perfect for Sony, with the company recently coming into some legal trouble with the Australian Competition And Consumer Commission (ACCC). Essentially, the regulator has accused Sony of breaching Australia's consumer laws, asking the major console manufacturer to pay $3.5 million in fines after it took advantage of four PlayStation 4 players.
This all started when the group of PlayStation 4 users asked for refunds from Sony following the purchase of "faulty" digital products from the console's storefront. Sony told the users that they weren't entitled to refunds, claiming that if the products were either downloaded or had been purchased over 14 days prior then no compensation would be reimbursed to those affected by the broken games. This goes directly against Australia's consumer regulations, with ACCC chairman Rod Sims claiming "consumer guarantee rights do not expire after a digital product has been downloaded and certainly do not disappear after 14 days or any other arbitrary date claimed by a game store or developer."
He continues "consumers who buy digital products online have exactly the same rights as they would if they made the purchase at a physical store." Worse yet, it seems Sony's support team told one consumer that only the game's developer could sanction a refund as well as claiming to another that they could only refund them in store credit. According to Sims "Refunds under the consumer guarantees must also be given in cash or money transfer if the consumer originally paid in one of those ways, unless the consumer chooses to receive store credit."
As it stands, the Australian Competition And Consumer Commission have officially cited that Sony's fine comes due to "making false and misleading representations on its website and in dealings with Australian consumers about their Australian Consumer Law (ACL) rights." Hopefully, it'll show Sony that incorporating fair refund regulations is imperative going forward if they want to make sure they're treating consumers fairly.
Source: GameSpot